Pigeons are seen resting on signage for Walgreens, owned by the Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., in Manhattan, New York City - Walgreen Boots Alliance cut its profit forecast for fiscal 2024 and announced store closures on Thursday, citing challenging pharmacy industry trends and a worse-than-expected U.S. consumer environment.
Investors are banking on CEO Tim Wentworth to steer strategy and cost-saving efforts at Walgreens, as the drugstore operator struggles with declining demand at its retail operations due to reduced spending from inflation-weary consumers and weak COVID product sales.Shares of the Deerfield, Illinois-based company fell nearly 4% in premarket trading, after having declined 40% for the year so far.
Analysts, on average, expect it to record an annual profit of $3.20 per share, according to LSEG data. Still, it expects the central bank to pick up the pace of rate cutting in 2025, with the benchmark rate reaching 2.75% by the end of next year.Prices for services pushed the annual rate of inflation up to 2.9 per cent in May, according to Statistics Canada.The chip giant briefly became the world's most valuable company last week, but investors will worry its rally driven by the AI frenzy may soon end.